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Glossary
M
eanings of Sanskrit words used in discussing religious and philosophical topics, more particularly used
in the discourses by Sri Sathya Sai Baba, reproduced in this volume, are given in this glossary. While the
English equivalents for the Sanskrit words have been given in the text with reference to the context, this glossary
attempts to provide comprehensive meanings and detailed explanations of the more important Sanskrit words, for
the benefit of lay readers who are interested in Hindu religion and philosophy.
aham. The knower, the “I”.
ahamkara. Ego, self-love, selfish individuality.
ahimsa. Nonviolence.
ananda. Divine bliss. The Self is unalloyed, eternal bliss. Pleasures are but its faint and impermanent shadows.
anithya. Impermanent, transient.Aham Brahmasmi. “I am Brahman”. This is one of the great Vedic aphorisms
(mahavakyas).
Anjaneya. A name for Hanuman, because he was Anjana Devi’s son.
Arjuna. Krishna’s disciple, in the Bhagavad Gita; third of five Pandava brothers. See Mahabharatha.
asanthi. Lack of peace; agitated mind; restlessness. Opposite of santhi.
Aswathama. Son of Drona.
Atma. Self; Soul. Self, with limitations, is the individual soul. Self, with no limitations, is Brahman, the Supreme Reality.
Atmarama. Eternal bliss; Rama in the heart.
Atmaswarupa. Embodiment of the all-pervading divine Self.
Atmic. Of or realting to the Atma.
Aum. Om; Designation of the Universal Brahman; sacred, primordial sound of the universe.
Avatar. Incarnation of God. Whenever there is a decline of dharma, God comes down to the world assuming
bodily form to protect the good, punish the wicked and re-establish dharma. An Avatar is born and lives free
and is ever conscious of His mission. By His precept and example, He opens up new paths in spirituality,
shedding His grace on all.
ayurveda. Classical Indian medical knowledge; science of health and long life.
Bali. Emperor of demons; grandson of Prahlada and son of the demon Virochana. Humiliated by dwarf Vamana,
who was an incarnation of Vishnu.
Bhagavad Gita. Literally, Song of God. Portion of the Mahabharatha that is a dialogue between Arjuna, one of
the Pandava brothers, and Krishna.
Bhagavan. Divinity; term of reverential address; Sathya Sai Baba is called Bhagavan by his devotees.
Bhagavatha. A sacred book composed by Sage Vyasa dealing with Vishnu and His incarnations, especially Sri
Krishna.
bhajans. Congregational chant group worship by devotees with devotional music in which repetition of holy
names predominates.
Bharatha. Son of Dasaratha and Kaika; brother of Rama. “Bharatha” means “he who rules”.
Bhima. Second of five Pandava brothers; named for his size and strength. See Mahabharatha.
Bhishma. The guardian and patriarch of the Kauravas and Pandavas. Remarkable for his wisdom and unflinching devotion to God. Trapped by his fate to fight on side of evil Kauravas; bled to death on a bed of arrows
while thinking of God. See Mahabharatha.
Brahma. The Creator, the First of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Siva
(the Destroyer).
Brahman. The Supreme Being, the Absolute Reality, Impersonal God with no form or attributes. The uncaused
cause of the Universe, Existence, Consciousness-Bliss Absolute (Sath-Chith-Ananda); The Eternal Changeless Reality — not conditioned by time, space, and causation,
buddhi. Intellect, intelligence, faculty of discrimination.
caste. The four castes of social order are: brahmin (priestly or teacher), kshatriya (warrior, protector), vaisya
(trader, merchant, agriculturist), and sudra (worker, helper). See varna dharma.
chaithanya. Consciousness, intelligence, spirit.
chit. Consciousness, knowledge, awareness.
dharma. Righteousness, religion, code of conduct, duty, essential nature of a being or thing. It holds together
the entire Universe. Man is exhorted to practise dharma to achieve material and spiritual welfare. The Vedas
contain the roots of dharma. God is naturally interested in the reign of dharma.
darshan. Sight of a holy person.
Dasaratha. Son of Aja and father of Rama; King of Ayodhya; the name means “ten chariot hero”.
Devi. Personification of the feminine principle; Goddess of the universe.
Dronacharya. Drona, the teacher of archery and war tactics for the Pandavas and Kauravas.
Droupadi. Wife of Pandavas. See Mahabharatha.
Durga. Goddess of the universe; mother earth; daughter of Himaval and wife of Siva.
Easwara. The Supreme Lord. Easwara is the Lord of every creature in the universe. Hence, the entire cosmos is
reflected as an image in the Lord. Siva is often called Easwara.
Easwaramma. Sathya Sai Baba’s mother. She passed away on May 6, 1998.
Ekalavya. Son of the king of foresters; refused as a student by Drona because he was a labourer.
Ganga. The 1560-mile-long Ganges river; starts in the Himalayas and flows generally east into the Bay of Bengal; the most sacred river of India.
Gayatri mantra. A very sacred Vedic prayer for self-enlightenment; it is repeated piously at dawn, noon, and
twilight devotions.
Govinda. Govinda and Gopala are names of Krishna, referring to his occupation as a young boy as a cowherd.
guna. Quality, property, trait; one of the three constituents of nature (sathwa, rajas, and thamas). They bind the
soul to the body. Man’s supreme goal in life is to transcend the gunas and attain liberation from the cycle of
birth and death.
guru. Spiritual guide; a knower of Brahman, who is calm, desireless, merciful, and ever ready to help and guide
spiritual aspirants who approach him.
Hanuman. Son of the Wind God and a great “devotee servant’’ of Rama. He was part man, part monkey.
Hari. God; destroyer of sins; name for Vishnu.
Indra. Lord of the devas (celestials). Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rig veda.
lswara. The Supreme Ruler, the Personal God. He is Brahman associated with illusion (maya) but has it under
His control, unlike the individual soul, who is illusion’s slave. He has a lovely form, auspicious attributes,
and infinite power to create, sustain, and destroy. He dwells in the heart of every being, controlling it from
within. He responds positively to true devotion and sincere prayer.
japa. Soft prayer or repetition of the name of God.
jathi. Race, birth, humanity.
jnana. Sacred knowledge; knowledge of the spirit, pursued as a means to Self-realisation. It is direct experience
of God, as the Soul of the souls. Jnana makes a man omniscient, free, fearless, and immortal.
Kaikeyi. Also Kaika. A princess of Kekaya (Kashmir), third wife of Dasaratha, and mother of Bharatha.
karma. Action, deed, work, religious rite, the totality of innate tendencies formed as a consequence of acts done
in previous lives. Every karma produces a lasting impression on the mind of the doer, apart from affecting
others. Repetition of a particular karma produces a tendency (vasana) in the mind. Karma is of three kinds:
(i) praarabdha, which is being exhausted in the present life: (ii) aagami, which is being accumulated in
the present life, and (iii) samchitha, which is being accumulated or stored to be experienced in future lives.
Akarma is action that is done without any intention to gain the consequences; vikarma is action that is intentionally done.
Kausalya. Daughter of the King of Kosala, first wife of Dasaratha, and mother of Rama.
Krishna. The Avatar of Vishnu in the Dwapara yuga, prior to the present Kali yuga.
Lakshmana. Brother of Rama and son of Sumitra; represents intellect.
Lakshmi. Consort of Vishnu, goddess of wealth.
leela. Divine sport or play.
lingam. Egg-shaped stone; symbol of Siva; the form of the formless; symbolizes merger of the form with the
formless.
Madhava. God (name for Krishna); Master of illusion (maya), Lord of Lakshmi.
Mahabharatha. The Hindu epic composed by Sage Vyasa, which deals with the deeds and fortunes of the cousins (the Kauravas and Pandavas) of the Lunar race, with Lord Krishna playing a significant and decisive role
in shaping the events. The Bhagavad Gita and Vishnu Sahasranama occur in this great epic. It is considered
to be the Fifth Veda by devout Hindus. Of this great epic, it is claimed that “what is not in it is nowhere.
Madhusudana. “Killer of the Madhu demon”. Name for Krishna.
Mahabharatha. Ancient epic in poetic form, by sage Vyasa; describes conflict between the Pandava brothers
and their cousins, the 100 Kaurava brothers. It contains the Bhagavad Gita, the metaphysical teaching of
Krishna to Arjuna.
Mahasivarathri. Sivarathri means “night of Siva”. It is the night when the moon is at its smallest. Mahasivarathri is the great Sivarathri, taking place generally in February or March.
Maheswara. Name for Siva; the great Lord.
manas. Mind, the inner organ, which has four aspects: (i) mind (manas), which deliberates, desires, and feels;
(ii) intellect (buddhi), which understands, reasons, and decides; (iii) the ‘I’ sense, and (iv) memory (chitha).
The mind, with all its desires and their broods, conceals the Divinity within man. Purification of the mind is
essential for realisation of the Self.
Manthara. Hunchbacked maid of Queen Kaika.
mantra. A sacred formula, mystic syllable or word symbol uttered during the performance of the rituals or
meditation. They represent the spiritual truths directly revealed to the rishis (seers). The section of the Veda
that contains these hymns (mantraa) is called the Samhitha.
maya. Delusion. The mysterious, creative, and delusive power of Brahman through which God projects the
appearance of the Universe. Maya is the material cause and Brahman is the efficient cause of the Universe.
Brahman and maya are inextricably associated with each other like fire and its power to heat. Maya deludes
the individual souls in egoism, making them forget their true spiritual nature.
maya-sakthi. Power of illusion, the veiling and projecting power of God.
mithya. Mixture of truth and falsehood; neither true nor untrue, but something in between. The world is not
untrue (asat) but mithya.
moksha/mukthi. Liberation from all kinds of bondage, especially the one to the cycle of birth and death. It is a
state of absolute freedom, peace, and bliss, attained through Self-realisation. This is the supreme goal of human endeavour, the other three being, righteousness (dharma), wealth and power (artha), and sense-pleasure
(kama).
namasmarana. Remembering God through His Name — one of the important steps of spiritual discipline to
obtain God’s grace and to make progress in the spiritual journey.
Nanak. 15th century founder of Sikh religion.
nara. Man; divine man; primeval man, human being.
Narada. Sage-bard; traveled the world chanting Narayana. Famous for creating disputes, resulting in solutions
for the spiritual advancement or victory of the virtuous. Expert in law and author of texts on dharma.
Narayana. The Primal Person, the Lord, Vishnu.
Om. Designation of the Universal Brahman; sacred, primordial sound of the Universe.
Omkara. The form of AUM, or Om.
Onam. A 10-day festival celebrated by the people of Kerala in August–September to commemorate the Vamana
and the subsequent homecoming of the Emperor Bali.
pancha. Five.
Pandavas. Sons of Pandu; family of 5 brothers that fought the Kauravas: Dharmaraja, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula,
and Sahadeva. See Mahabharatha.
Parabrahman. Universal Absolute Brahman.
Paramatma. Supreme Self, Supreme Atma.
Parameswara. Supreme Lord, highest Godhead, Siva.
Parasurama. An incarnation of Vishnu as man, born to destroy the arrogance of the wicked Kshatriya kings.
Param-jyothi. Highest revelation, supreme light, divine intelligence.
Parvathi. Siva’s consort.
Pedda Venkama Raju. Sathya Sai Baba’s father.
Prahlada. Son of the demon king Hiranyakasipu. As a boy, he was beaten, trampled, and cast into fire and water. But he saw only God everywhere, and repetition of the Name of God saved him. Once, Prahlada asserted
that God was everywhere, and Narayana appeared in his man-lion form from within a pillar to destroy the
king.
prakriti. Nature, the Divine Power of Becoming. Also known as maya, avidya, and sakthi; the world of matter
and mind as opposed to the spirit. Prakriti has three dispositions or gunas (sathwa, rajas, and thamas), which
go into the make-up of all living and non-living beings in the Universe, in varying proportions leading to the
appearance of infinite multiplicity in form, nature, and behaviour.
prana. Life-breath, life force, vital energy, the five vital airs.
Pranava. Om; the sacred seed-sound and symbol of Brahman. “The most exalted syllable in Vedas”. It is used
in meditation on God. It is uttered first before a Vedic mantra is chanted.
prasanthi. Supreme peace, equanimity.
prema. Ecstatic love of God; divine love of the most intense kind.
Puranas. The Hindu scriptures in which Vedic truths are illustrated through tales of divine incarnations and heroes. Sage Vyasa is believed to have written them. Of the 18 Puranas, Srimad Bhagavatha is the best known.
rajas/rajo guna. One of the three gunas (qualities or dispositions) of maya or prakriti. Rajas is the quality of
passion, energy, restlessness, attachment, and extroversion. It results in pain.
Radha. Cowherd maid, a chief devotee of Krishna; one of Lakshmi’s forms.
Rama. Avatar of the Thretha yuga. Hero of the Ramayana; killed the wicked Ravana to rescue his wife Sita,
who had been kidnapped. “Rama” means “he who pleases”.
Ramayana. This sacred Hindu epic, composed by Sage Valmiki, deals with the incarnation of Vishnu as Sri
Rama, who strove all his life to reestablish the reign of dharma in the world. The Ramayana has played an
important role in influencing and shaping the Hindu ethos over the centuries.
Ravana. Lord of demons and king of Lanka, who abducted Sita (Rama’s wife).
sakshatkara. Divine spiritual experience or vision; direct exerience of the Lord.
sakthi. Great universal power, divine energy, strength. Maha means Great, so Mahasakthi is great sakthi.
samadhi. The super-conscious state transcending the body, mind, and intellect, attained through rigorous and
protracted spiritual practices. In that state of consciousness, the objective world and the ego vanish and Reality is perceived or communed with, in utter peace and bliss. When, in this state, the aspirant realises his oneness with God, it is called nirvikalpa samadhi.
samsara. Worldly life; life of the individual soul through repeated births and deaths. Liberation means getting
freed from this cycle.
sanathana. Ancient and also eternal.
Sanathana Dharma. Eternal religion. A descriptive term for what has come to be called Hinduism. It has no
single founder or text of its own. It is more a commonwealth of religious faiths and a way of life.
Sankara. Another name for Siva (means beneficent, conferring happiness).
Sankara. Also Sankaracharya. Celebrated philosopher, preceptor of non-dualistic Vedanta. Defeated all religious opponents in debates throughout India.
Sankranthi. Sankranthi, meaning “sacred change”, occurs every month as the sun moves from one house of
the Zodiac to another. But special sacredness is attached to the movement of the sun to Capricorn (Makara),
so this day is known as Makara Sankranthi. This day is related to the beginning of the apparent northward
movement of the sun. This auspicious day heralds the conferment of many worldly and spiritual blessings on
man. It is a witness to the prospective successes of humanity in many fields. (From Sai Baba’s discourses of
14 Jan 1997 and 14 Jan 1998).
santhi. Peace, equanimity, serenity, tranquility.
saranagathi. Absolute self-surrender.
Sastras. The Hindu scriptures containing the teachings of the sages. The Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ithihasas
(epics), the Puranas, the Smrithis (codes of conduct), etc., form the Sastras of the Hindus. They teach us how
to live wisely and well with all the tenderness and concern of the Mother.
Saraswathi. Goddess of learning and eloquence, a daughter of Brahma.
sat. Existence, being, good, real.
sat-chit-ananda. Existence-knowledge-bliss, or being-awareness-bliss.
sathwa. One of the three gunas (qualities and dispositions) of maya or prakriti. It is the quality of purity, brightness, peace, and harmony. It leads to knowledge. Man is exhorted to overcome thamas by rajas and rajas by
sathwa and finally to go beyond sathwa itself to attain liberation.
sathwic. Adjective form of sathwa; serene, pure, good, balanced.
sathya. Truth.
Sathyanarayana. Sathya Sai Baba, as an incarnation of Narayana, the Primal Person, the Lord, Vishnu.
Satrughna. Sumitra’s son, twin of Lakshmana and brother of Rama. The name means “slayer of enemies”.
Savithri. Brought husband back to life by outwitting Yama, the Lord of Death, by her power of purity and chastity.
seva. Selfless service; service to others while trying to serve the God within them.
Sita. Wife of Rama; brought up by King Janaka who found her in a box in the earth. Also, a tributary of the
Ganga, flowing westward.
Siva. The Destroyer, the Third of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Siva
(the Destroyer).
Sivarathri. The fourteenth day of the lunar fortnight, when the moon is waning. Mahasivarathri is the Sivarathri when the sun is in the sign of Aquarius, generally February or March. Siva-rathri means “Auspicious
darkness”. In His discourse of 7 March 1978, Sai Baba explained, “The waned moon may be taken to stand
for the mind with all its wild fancies and waywardness reduced after it has been conquered by spiritual discipline. On this night, there is just a minute part more to be conquered, and that can be done by keeping vigil
and dwelling on the glory of God.” That is the reason for night-long devotional singing on Mahasivarathri.
soham. I am God.
Sugriva. Monkey-king, brother of Vali; with his army of monkeys headed by Hanuman, assisted Rama in defeating Ravana.
Sumitra. Second wife of Dasaratha and mother of Lakshmana and Satrughna.
swarupa. Form, essential nature, true nature of Being, embodiment..
Tandava. A dance performed by Siva; the source of the cycle of creation, preservation, and dissolution.
thamas. One of the gunas (qualities and dispositions) of maya or prakriti. It is the quality of dullness, inertia,
darkness and tendency to evil. It results in ignorance.
Thathwa. Principle, truth, essence. That-this entity. Thathwa is regarded as made up of That (Thath) and you
(thwam).
Trivikrama. Three steps. A name for Vamana, who asked for three feet of land from Emperor Bali and humbled
Bali’s pride.
upadhi. Container, disguise, encasement, limitation.
Upanishads. The very sacred portions of the Vedas that deal with God, man, and universe, their nature and interrelationships. Spiritual knowledge (jnana) is their content, so they form the Jnana-kaanda of the Vedas.
vairagya. Detachment, renunciation.
Vali. A great monkey-king; brother and enemy of Sugriva.
Valmiki. The saint-poet who wrote the Ramayana.
Vamana. Dwarf incarnation of Vishnu, who asked for three feet of land from Emperor Bali and humbled Bali’s
pride.
varna dharma. The Hindu community is divided into four social groups, or castes (varnas), based on gunas and
vocations: (1) Brahmana (the Brahmins), the custodian of spiritual and moral role), (2) kshatriya, the warrior
group, which rules and defends the land), (3) vaishya, the group dealing with commerce, business, and trade,
and (4) sudra, the group devoted to labour and service to the community. Each varna has its own dharmic restrictions and regulations that strive to canalise impulses and instinct into fields that are special to their place
in society, controls pertaining to the duties of the caste.
vasana. Inclination, impression of anything remaining in the subconscious mind from past action.
Vasishta. One of the greatest rishis (sages) of ancient times; priest of the solar race of kings; revealer of several
Vedic hymns. Had sacred, wishfulfilling cow called Nandini.
Veda. Knowledge, wisdom. This knowledge is generally viewed as being given in the Vedas.
Vedas. The oldest and the holiest of the Hindu scriptures, the primary source of authority in Hindu religion and
philosophy. They are four in number: the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda.
Vedic. Of your relating to the Vedas.
Vedanta. Means “the end of the Vedas”. It is the essence of the Vedas enshrined in the Upanishads. The philosophy of non-dualism, or qualified non-dualism, or dualism based on the Upanishadic teachings, is denoted by
this term.
Vibhishana. Brother of Ravana; Rakshasa chief who represented pure mindedness and sided with Rama.
vidya. Spiritual education, spiritual knowledge, learning, that which illumines, that which gives light, supreme
teaching.
Vinayaka. Vinayaka is another name for Ganesha, the elephant-headed Deity who is known as the remover of
obstacles. Ganesh is often honoured at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies; for example, the first bhajan
in a devotional song session may be a Ganesh bhajan.
Vishnu. The Preserver, the Second of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and
Siva (the Destroyer).
Viswamitra. Sage; known for his efforts to equal Vasishta. Born as warrior Kausika who by the power of the
Gayatri transformed himself spiritually. Early counselor of the young Rama.
Yama. God of Death; death personified.
yoga. Union with God. Also the path by which this union of the soul with God is achieved. The four important
paths of yoga are knowledge, action, meditation, and devotion.
yuga. Era or age. There is a cycle of four yugas: the Kritha yuga, Thretha yuga, Dwapara yuga, and Kali yuga.
Present age is the Kali yuga